Mobile technologies in physics education in Latvian secondary schools

Loreta Juskaite, Aleksandrs Ipatovs, Atis Kapenieks

Abstract

The availability of ICT has raised the issue of meaningful use of Mobile technologies (smartphones, tablets, sensors, data loggers, data collectors, as well as other devices and options) in the teaching/learning process of physics to deepen the students' knowledge and develop their research skills. Mobile technologies are constantly and rapidly evolving, and there is practically no social domain where they are not used, including education. Thus, the acquisition of mobile technology usage skills is an integral part of the learning process in a modern school. Education experts are now emphasizing not only the integration of Mobile technologies into the learning process but also the need to improve the efficiency of the learning process for both teachers and students. Success is based not only on what or how much one knows, but also on one's ability to think and act creatively. Mobile technology-based learning process is based on the Educational Technology Competency Standards for Teachers and accentuates the demand for improving teachers’ technology skills and with a focus on knowledge and capacity building.
This paper summarizes the research on the use of Mobile technologies in teaching physics in Latvia for the last nine years, as well as analyses the issues and suggestions for improving the process. A pedagogical experiment is conducted based on pre-planned and prepared participation in the learning process.

Council of the European Union, “Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies,” Official Journal of the European Union, Brussels [Internet], December 2, 2016 [cited 20.12.2018], available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.327.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2016:327:TOC.

J. Miller-Young & J. Boman, “Uncovering ways of thinking, practicing and being through decoding across disciplines," in Proceedings New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2017, pp. 148.

L. Echegaray, C. Periafiel, M. Ronco, “The influence of media contents about health in the construction of the discourse about the body in young adults and teenagers,” in Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality Salamanca, Spain 2014 pp. 321- 326. [Internet], 2014 [cited 22.12.2018], available from: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2669711.2669918.

Y. Park, "A pedagogical framework for mobile learning: Categorizing educational applications of mobile technologies into four types," The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 78‒102, 2010.